Plane crashes near Hudson

(AP) - The pilot of a small plane says he crashed after taking off from a grass runway south of Waterloo in northeastern Iowa. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that pilot Bob Oppold on Friday afternoon set the plane down in a ditch on the west side of a highway. Oppold and passenger Dick Poppe of Waterloo were both uninjured.

Poppe says it appears the elevator control malfunctioned, preventing the plane from taking off very far. The 1981 Piper Saratoga wasn't severely damaged. It came to rest in tall grass about 10 feet away from a guardrail on Highway 21.

Oppold says he was headed to Oelwein for an annual aircraft inspection.

Both the Iowa State Patrol and the Black Hawk County Sheriff's office responded to the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.